2 Chronicles 15
Asa, one of the good kings
A prophet warns King Asa
1A prophet named Azariah, [1] son of Obed, received a message from God. 2He took the message to King Asa:“Listen to me, Asa. I have a message from the LORD for you and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you. And he’ll be there for you as long as you continue to live by his laws. But if you leave him, he’s gone. You’ll get the distance you wanted. 3The nation of Israel went a long time without God. No one taught them God’s laws. Not even the priests. 4But all that changed when the people got in trouble. They found God fast.
5There was a lot of trouble in their world. It wasn’t safe to travel abroad. There was too much violence. It was everywhere. 6There was nothing but chaos and disunity. Nations fought nations. Cities fought cities. God dosed them all on distress.
7As for you, stay brave. And make your hands useful. Work, and you’ll get the reward that comes with it.”
Asa destroys idols
8When Asa heard what the prophet Azariah said, he destroyed all the idols in the towns he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim’s tribe. He also repaired the aging Temple altar outside the sanctuary.Judah vows devotion to God
9Then he called a meeting of all the people in the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. He included Israelites who had moved there from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon—and there were a lot of them. They came when they saw evidence that God was with Asa.10Asa hosted this meeting late in the spring [2] of his 15th year as king. 11They sacrificed 700 cattle and 7,000 sheep that they had plundered from in and around the town of Gerar. [3] 12The people made a vow to the LORD and God of their ancestors. They promised to devote themselves to him with all the heart and soul they had in them. 13They agreed that anyone refusing to do the same should be executed—and it didn’t matter if they were young or old, man or woman.
14The crowd took an oath about this—shouting their vows to the music of ram’s horns. 15Everyone in Judah celebrated. They were happy to take this oath. They lived this promise with all their heart, too. For that, the LORD gave them peace in the land.
Asa fires the Queen Mother, his momma
16King Asa’s mother, Queen Mother Maacah, continued to worship Asherah [4] by using one of the disgusting poles common to this cult. So Asa stripped her of her royal title. Queen Mother no more. Then he burned her cherished pole in Kidron Valley. [5]17Asa, however, didn’t manage to destroy the hilltop shrines scattered throughout the northern tribes of Israel. [6] Regardless, Asa remained devoted to God. 18He donated gifts to the Temple: silver, gold, and utensils priests needed to use. These came from his own treasury and from what had once been his father’s royal treasury.
19The nation lived in peace until the 35th year of his reign. They fought no wars during that stretch.
Footnotes
This is the only reference in the Bible to Azariah. It’s all scholars say they know about him.
In the third month on the Jewish calendar, Sivan. This corresponds to May-June. Israel marked the seasons with a lunar calendar. Every new month started at the first tiny crescent after the new moon. A new moon is when the moon is hidden behind earth’s shadow for one day. The sun, moon, and earth are aligned, with earth in the middle.
2 Chronicles 14:14.
Asherah is the name of an ancient fertility goddess from the Sumerian civilization in what is now southern Iraq. One of her symbols was a “tree of life.” Some ancient jewelry shows the tree growing out of the goddess’s belly. The Asherah poles reported in the Bible apparently represented those trees. Some poles were carved, perhaps with an image of the goddess (2 Kings 21:7). People worshiped this goddess with those poles described as repulsive and obscene. But we’re left to guess how the people used those poles in worship.
Kidron Valley is just below the ridgetop ancient city of Jerusalem, on the eastern side. So, it’s between ancient Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. An often-dry streambed lies in the valley. Locals call the streambed a “wadi.” In this dry part of the world, people often used dry wadis as smooth trails from one town to another. But wadis can fill with rainwater after a rain shower.
The Hebrew language simply says “Israel.” Bible writers sometimes used that to describe all the tribes in the two nations: Israel in the north with Judah and Benjamin in the south. But here in may refer to the northland towns and communities he controlled in the hills of Ephraim.
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